Crimson Dreams
by wintaer
Summary: Wake from a dream and what do you see? Or do you perhaps still dream?


_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Bleach and can only borrow and play with the lovely characters._

Crimson Dreams

"_Awaken."_

And so he wakes in a well-lit underground cavern with silence and solitude pressing down on him from all sides. Stifling and suffocating, they make him choke on the sheer nothingness surrounding him, until it feels as if he cannot _possibly_ bear another moment of this torture. But just as he's about to be crushed by the overwhelming void of emptiness, a woman appears before him in a bright blaze of crimson light. Achingly beautiful with ruby red lips, raven black hair and a carefully arranged kimono dyed in every shade of blood, she holds out a hand towards him, murmuring words that he cannot hear. Tentatively, he reaches out to take the proffered hand, only to have long scarlet nails rake across his stubbled face as her elegantly dangerous aura throws him back, swathing him in countless crimson ties while she fades away into the darkness closing around him.

He is hurt and confused, yet strangely exhilarated as his tongue darts out to gather the blood trickling down his cheeks, the coppery tang filling his mouth just as a rude jerk from one of the crimson sashes wrapped around his waist lands him at the feet of a goddess. For a moment, she stares at him with curious golden eyes before a smile breaks across her face and a familiar bark of laughter shatters the silence. There is color in the world again; vibrant colors like the purple of her hair as she bends down to undo his bindings, helping him stand back up as she has so many times before. Scenes whirl around them, too fast to follow with the eye, but with them comes a sense of knowing. She sees past his masks of obfuscating stupidity, he sees past her masks of unwavering strength, and they fly at each other with matching grins, bodies seeking to both dodge and deal blows. It's an intricate dance of crackling power, unspoken challenges and implicit trust as they slowly wind closer and closer together, becoming entangled in sweat-soaked sheets. He watches her roll on top of him, golden eyes glinting mischievously before a crimson cloth draped around his neck pulls his head back, allowing a woman with messy black hair to join in on the fun, her one arm exploring his body familiarly. Everything builds, and builds, and _builds…_

Until the world explodes with a sharp whistle, the glare of light burning red against his closed lids. When he opens them again, he's clad in white and in a room crammed full of quietly humming machinery, moving easily and familiarly along the work benches, obviously in his element as he leans over a rack of test tubes which gives way to a dark orb that fits easily into the palm of his hand. Scarlet ribbons tied around his wrists lead him towards an oddly made-up man and a pair of pigtailed sandals while countless threads spin out towards white and black-robed figures with kind smiles and wise eyes. He is laughing, joking, teasing... _happy_ in the whirl of unfamiliarly familiar faces.

But red seeps through white as the scene in front of him suddenly fills and overflows with the warm, crimson liquid of carnage. Rivers of blood stain the dirt-packed ground, sinuously oozing towards the sword in his hand as eight masked figures lie motionless in front of him, deep gashes running across their bodies. There are two shadowy forms near him, one in front and one behind. Both wear glasses, yet the one facing him wears a mask of smiling kindness while poisonous words soundlessly drift through the air with the arrogance of a thousand gods. The giant man behind him moves restlessly, hands glowing with green light…

Light that shines on the white of his clothing, flooding them with its color, the familiar weight of a green and white-striped hat resting on his head as he pulls his sword out of a cane, blurring towards a boy with orange hair and an almost suffocating presence, sparks flying as metal clashes against metal. The blades reflect grinning teeth and whining pouts, expired herbal remedies and laughing golden eyes as fireworks explode across the night sky, lighting up the faces of those watching from below. It is for them that he pushes and pulls, driving the boy to his limits and forcing him to break beyond them, drawing blood that forms into a shield before it shatters to reveal the princess who slowly winds the countless crimson ties back towards herself.

"_Awaken..."_

And so he wakes.

* * *

_**A/N:** Wrote this up as Urahara's dream for the app over at ES. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, it's basically a dream that Urahara has before waking up without his memories and has only this dream to rely on as a guide. Let me know what you think! _


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